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Friday, May 4, 2012

Traveling with Mangoes Across Time & Cultures

I love mangoes! So beautiful and blushing, with a sweet enticing aroma...a temptation for the taste buds.

My childhood in Bangladesh was wonderful. I grew up in house surrounded by a lush green garden full of fruit trees. Towering sway-backed coconut palms, thick ancient Jack Fruit trees with their heavy, prickly fruit, pale slender guava trees and the many-branched mango trees. As a child, I spent many days climbing the mango trees, sometimes for the fruit, but more often to hide in and daydream.

And I always looked forward to Spring because she brought along mango blossoms. The delicate, lacy sprays of flowers would cover the trees like festive adornment and herald the coming of mango-eating season. Joy! Joy! Joy!

So when I moved to West Texas, bone dry and dusty, one of the things I missed most was that childhood garden. I tried to fill the void in my heart by buying mangoes whenever they were available at the grocery store. I enjoyed every bite of the sweet goodness, but it only lasted as long as the mangoes (and no, I didn't let them sit around too long...too tasty for that!). For a while I was all gung-ho about planting a mango tree in my new garden, but my patient Cowboy explained the West Texas environment wasn't the most hospitable when it came to mangoes. So I had to satisfy myself with my grocery store finds.

Then one day, recently, the National Mango Board sent me a box of mangoes.

While it was simply promotion to them, it was the best gift for me. Believe me, nothing compares to receiving a box of mangoes in the mail. I opened the box up with eager fingers, until the first whiff of the aroma hit me. I stilled, and then continued more slowly, savoring the moment. When the mangoes lay revealed among all the packing materials, I almost cried.

For a moment, I was back in Bangladesh.

Every summer we would not only harvest mangoes from the garden, but also receive baskets full of them from my father's village. I received those baskets with dancing joy and when I received the box of mangoes, my heart danced again.

This month we are celebrating #Letslunch member @CowgirlChef aka Ellise Pierce and her wonderful new cookbook Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking With a French Accent (Love the title!).

To celebrate Ellise's love for fusion cooking, I decided to take my favorite fruit and incorporate it into a recipe from my West Texas mother-in-law. Fusion at its sweetest! (Yes, I went there...just couldn't resist)

Mango Cobbler -- A Texas Dessert with Exotic Bengali Flair.

My hubby adapted his mother’s Hasty Peach Cobbler
recipe to include ingredients in our pantry. You can substitute your preferred
flour, sweetner and fats. Note: we prefer our cobblers not-too sweet so you
might have to adjust the sugar to taste. And, of course, I put in the mangoes!

14 comments:

Loved the post and will try out the recipe for sure! Your mango flashback reminded me of Jasmine flowers I'd smell in our garden when I was a child. Though I grew up in HK... we'd go to Jaipur, India every summer and these tiny white flowers would fill my lungs with fragrance. In my desperation to bring back my childhood I googled and discovered they were jasmines. A trip to Pike Nursery last week and a morning of planting and they're settling in. I hope they'll creep along the fence and fill my adult life with childhood fragrance again. What a coincidence, Mina... that this should happen at the same time? Enjoy ur childhood.Anju!

Oh wow, yes, Jasmines! We used to make garlands from those star-like flowers...Miss them too. Those didn't work out for me in W. TX either..., but good luck with yours! Thanks for the visit & thanks for the memories :)

I started eating mangoes years ago when peaches were out of season and always thought the two were similar enough to swap out one for the other....now, of course, I'm totally addicted to mangoes, too. Thank goodness they're easy to find in Paris...and most other places in the world, too. Love how you bridged Texas and India with one of my favorite summer dishes, my mother's peach cobbler.

Hooboy, mangoes! I do love em. I ordered a few big boxes of citrus this year -- Page and honeybell oranges, Red Star grapefruit, tangerines -- and know the pleasure of opening that fragrant package of fruit. Thanks for sharing, Rashda.

You poor thing... West Texas!? Must've been love. ;) (I lived in lubbock for two years so i get it) When I was in India at a meditation retreat our grounds were on a mango grove. It added such a magical touch to an already fabulous experience. Off to check out that coconut mango rice pudding... YUM!

Me

About Me

A food enthusiast, writer and culinary instructor with global tastes, I'm raising a multicultural family and I love experimenting in my kitchen. Sometimes I serve hot curries and cold beer, other times steak with curry sauce. I hope you'll join me on my food adventures :)